Three Imaginary Girls - Terrene

The Indifferent Universe

Jeremy Downing — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:31:03 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000R3486M/wwwthreeimagi-20

If patience is a virtue, then John Dylan, the singer, guitarist, and founding member of Terrene, ought to be knighted by now. What began as a solo project in the late nineties has quietly blossomed over the past decade into an exquisite work of art. With a complete band now in tow and a label finally at the helm, Dylan is finally ready to release his work in full-length form, and as any of Terrene's loyal fans can tell you, it is a long time coming. To put this into context, on June 30, 2000 Dylan's "Fifty-One" was Spin Magazine's "Cool Track of the Day." That was seven years ago, folks, and today a refined and expanded version "Fifty-One" is poised to be the first single off Terrene's brightly polished record, The Indifferent Universe.

The word "terrene" may mean "of or relating to the earth" but Terrene, the band, sounds anything but earthly. The echoic guitars chime beautifully with soaring harmonies whirling in from all directions, and every sound is obscured lightly by a lucid haze of reverb, giving the music a very nebulous quality. Attempts to pigeonhole or compare Terrene's sound with established genres and artists usually result only in Frankensteinian conglomerations of eclectic bands -- a tooth of Sonic Youth, a couple toes of Sigur Ros, a Flaming Lip, maybe a few Blonde Redhead hairs sticking out somewhere, etc. -- but these stitched generalizations do no justice to the ten years of songs (some copyrights date back as far as 1996) underneath the sheen of two years' worth of production.

Of the thirteen tracks on this record, the only ones I find myself skipping past are the untitled interludes which have been inserted between some songs. "Fifty-One" is catchy as hell, and it showcases Terrene's strong points of good songwriting, aural expansion, and instrumental harmonies right off the bat. The 8-bit video game sounds and keyboard-led melodies of "Unwelcome" are giddy, danceable, and just plain fun to listen to. "The Spirits On The Shelf" is breathtakingly moving, with a backdrop of soft mandolins and violins keeping the emotions aloft.

From a songwriting perspective, the strongest track on the record is "Media Sift (Through Heart Rises)." The song begins with a simultaneous crash of instrumentation, layered with high-tempo rhythms and low-tempo chord progressions over which Dylan's resonant vocals and nostalgic lyrics are stretched. After what seems to be a verse, the song leaps into what seems to be a chorus, but before long it becomes apparent that there is no sense turning back. Every few measures the song grows an increment, the melodies expand to make way for more melodies, and the sphere of harmonies augments. Finally, once it reaches its own apex, Dylan concludes the lyrics with the line "Each wake leaves every dream unsure, to media sifts and nothing more" and the song vaults into a final hurrah before exploding into a hushed fallout of dissipating guitar plucks. The most notable characteristic of this song is how naturally it abandons the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure in favor of a linearized, progressive structure. In this sense, it never retrogresses or becomes redundant, even as some elements of the percussion, guitar harmonies, and vocal lines remain consistent throughout.

The Indifferent Universe, though very well composed, is not without its flaws. Terrene has been sitting on this egg for years now, and they have fallen into the pitfall that many bands experience while waiting for it to hatch: overproduction. Not to discredit the efforts of John Dylan or his notable co-producer Phil Ek, whose collaboration of Dylan's innovative style and Ek's impeccable expertise make for a crystalline and professional veneer to cover the music with, but with each layer they add to the songs the existing layers become more and more opaque. Though this sense of opacity is important to create a certain overwhelming aura, the effect of overproduction waters down the lyrics to the point of unintelligibility for a large part of the record, and it homogenizes the songs more than is necessary to create a sense of coherence. This criticism isn't coming from speculation either -- it is coming from somebody who has not only heard older versions of several songs, but who actually listened to the previous version of "Media Sift (Through Heart Rises)" almost religiously on daily Metro Transit treks last school year. When I first heard the final version of that song on this record, I couldn't help feeling that the shiny new model I was hearing had betrayed many of the songsmith's original intentions, welding the hood shut and preventing the listener from understanding the marvelous inner workings of the music.

While the production may be a little overdrawn, they had the right idea in mind. Terrene's music is at its best when the listeners can look up at the panorama of the night's sky and feel that the music they are listening to is as mystical and expansive as the heavens above them. They have mastered the merits of musical complexity, and the next logical step forward might be to find the merits of simplicity so that the two can be juxtaposed to full effect. Terrene is a promising star, and one to watch for. If they can continue to grow, today's red dwarf might be tomorrow's supergiant.

They have mastered the merits of musical complexity, and the next logical step forward might be to find the merits of simplicity so that the two can be juxtaposed to full effect.

KEXP's Monthly Live Broadcasts of Audioasis to Benefit Local Charities

three imaginary girls — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:00:00 +0000

Three Imaginary Girls to co-present kickoff event, featuring live performances from Terrene, Romance, The Village Green, and Invisible Eyes. Saturday night, March 4th, at the High Dive in Seattle, WA

Hey! What are you doing on Saturday night, March 4th? We highly suggest you head to the High Dive for the debut Audioasis Live Remote Broadcast, co-presented by Three Imaginary Girls and featuring four stellar local bands. Plus raffle prizes! Here's the full scoop...

The first Saturday of every month in 2006, eclectic music station KEXP (90.3FM and KEXP.ORG) will broadcast its local music program Audioasis (Saturdays 6-9pm) from the High Dive in Seattle. All door proceeds will benefit a different local charity each month. This is a community initiative to create meaningful connections between KEXP listeners and deserving local charities. KEXP hopes to increase awareness of the mission and work of various local organizations and the impact they have on the larger community. KEXP will provide each charity a variety of ways to increase their visibility. Sounds great to us!

For March, the benefit will be for Seattle Works, the show will be co-presented by Three Imaginary Girls (woot! woot!), and we hear that DJs John Richards, Abe Beeson, and Sean Nelson will all be present. Be there for the first one!

Here's the full line-up:

Live Broadcast
6:30 - 7:00 - Terrene Live on-air performance
8:00 - 8:30 - The Invisible Eyes Live on-air performance

Showcase
10:00 - 10:45 - Romance {read review}
11:00 - 12:00 - The Village Green {read review}
12:15 - 1:15 - The Invisible Eyes

*******************************************************

THE JUICY DETAILS
WHAT: KEXP Audioasis and Three Imaginary Girls present the debut monthly Live Remote Broadcast from the Hive Dive, featuring Terrene, Romance, the Village Green, and Invisible Eyes.
WHERE: The High Dive 513 N. 36th in Fremont. Seattle, WA
WHEN: Saturday, March 4th, 2006. The Live Broadcast starts at 6p. 21+.
COST: $6. Advance tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets.

ABOUT THREE IMAGINARY GIRLS
ThreeImaginaryGirls.com is a Seattle-based website that showcases the great music of the Northwest to music lovers worldwide. During the past three+ years, the site has featured reviews of albums, live music, film, theater, interviews, political commentary, and even love advice, in Seattle and beyond. The girls also book music showcases, contribute to other music publications (including The Stranger, Tablet Magazine, and Music for America), and make guest radio appearances on 90.3 KEXP. The girls were voted "MVP of Seattle Music 2004" by readers of the Seattle Weekly, and were listed in Seattle Magazine's Most Influential People issue. Intrigued? For more information, contact: tig@threeimaginarygirls.com.

ABOUT KEXP 90.3 FM
KEXP Radio is an influential, innovative non-commercial music radio station based in Seattle, supported by its membership of contributing listeners. KEXP programs a wide and deep mix of music spanning multiple genres, including alternative rock, electronic, hip-hop, roots, country, world, blues and in-depth specialty programs. Listeners enjoy this non-commercial service at 90.3FM in Seattle and throughout the world at http://www.kexp.org.

In the spring of 2004 KEXP.ORG was ranked number six among all audio streaming services on Arbitron's internet broadcasting service and, furthermore, was ranked first among all streaming AM and FM radio stations currently webcasting. Also, K EXP won the Webby for Best Radio Station website in 2004 and in the winter of 2005 won the PLUG Independent Music Award for best Non-Commercial Radio Station.

KEXP has a mission to enrich people's lives culturally by providing a wide and deep array of music, and technologically by exploring, developing and applying relevant technology to deepen or extend music experiences. Past first-ever technology services include KEXP's 14-Day online streaming archive where listeners can listen to any portion of the past fourteen days of programming, its online real time playlist where listeners can discover what is being played, and its 1.4 megabits per second uncompressed audio stream. All of these projects were developed in partnership with the world-class computing and networking experts at the University of Washington.

The station is governed by the Friends of KEXP, a non-profit organization operating the station on behalf of the University of Washington, which holds the FCC license. Experience Music Project provides generous financial support and the University of Washington computing and communications group provides KEXP with streaming services, technical support, development of new streaming applications and other technical developments.

audioasis_march4_small.jpg

Hey! What are you doing on Saturday night, March 4th, 2006? We highly suggest you head to the High Dive for the debut Audioasis Live Remote Broadcast, co-presented by Three Imaginary Girls and featuring four stellar local bands. Plus raffle prizes!